It was raining a lot in São Paulo on the afternoon of that Sunday, December 21, 1919. Although the scenario at the time was very different from today, without the congestion that any drop of water can create, the storm was enough to slow down the trams. of the capital, which, at longer intervals, moved overcrowded.
Newspapers at the time used to call the transport a “patientometer”, as it measured the patience of its users. On that rainy day, fans traveling to the Jardim América stadium, named after the neighborhood in the west zone, were affected.
It was there that Club Athletico Paulistano defeated Corinthians 4-1 in the last round of that year’s Campeonato Paulista and won their fourth consecutive title. To this day, Brazil’s oldest football tournament, played since 1902, has never had another four-time champion, something that Palmeiras now dreams of becoming.
The Alviverde team begins its journey this Wednesday (15) in search of its fourth consecutive title. Their first challenge will be against Portuguesa, at 9:35 pm, at Allianz Parque, broadcast by Record and CazéTV.
Champion in 2022, 2023 and 2024, the team led by Abel Ferreira could become the first in the professional era of the sport to celebrate a fourth championship.
In 1919, the then Palestra Itália team fought until the last round to stop Paulistano’s four, but ended the competition as runner-up, with 29 points, one less than their rival.
At that time, Paulistano was one of the great powers in the state. With 11 titles, he is still the fifth biggest winner of the Campeonato Paulista, just behind Corinthians (30), Palmeiras (26), São Paulo (22) and Santos (22).
But, in 1930, amid the professionalization of football, the Jardim América club stopped competing within the four lines. Currently, it still has thousands of members, who often use the swimming pool and courts at its headquarters, where trophies won in its glory days are kept.
Before Paulistano, SPAC (São Paulo Athletic Club) was the first to come close to a fourth championship, but stopped in the third, winning the state championship from 1902 to 1904.
In the following decades, Corinthians, four times (1922-23-24, 1928-29-30, 1937-38-39, 2017-18-19), Santos, three times (1960-61-62, 1967-68 -69, 2010-11-12), and Palmeiras, twice (1932-33-34, 2022-23-24), equaled SPAC’s feat, but only the alviverde team keeps the dream of reaching the fourth place alive at this moment.
The current champion’s series began with a victory over São Paulo in the 2022 Paulista decision. The following year, the victim of the alviverde team was the modest Água Santa. In the most recent final, in 2024, the loser was Santos.
The sequence of victories helped Palmeiras get closer to its biggest rival in the ranking of the biggest champions in São Paulo. The difference between them is now four trophies, 30 to 26.
The Parque São Jorge club has not won the title since 2019, when it won its last third title. That year, Corinthians defeated São Paulo in the decision. In previous years, the victims of the black and white formation were Ponte Preta (2017) and Palmeiras (2018).
The biggest fast among the greats belongs to Santos. The team from Baixada Santista has not won the championship since 2016. This year, the beach team will debut against Mirassol, on Thursday (16), in Vila Belmiro.
Corinthians will have Red Bull Bragantino as their first opponent, also on Thursday, at 7:30 pm, in Bragança Paulista. São Paulo’s debut will only be next Monday (20), against Botafogo, away from home. The tricolor team will take longer to take the field for Paulista due to the FC Series friendly tournament in the United States.
